DNCC 2008: Hillary Clinton’s Speech

Hillary Clinton’s speech is about to begin. Gov. Schweitzer of Montana was fantastic — should have been the keynote. The intro video for Sen. Clinton is really high energy — I’m thinking the speech is going to be revved up as well. Hold onto your hats — will blog as much as I can.

Chelsea Clinton is narrating the intro video for Hillary Clinton. She’s now taking the stage.

Nice melon colored suit — pops against the blue background. She’s waving to the crowd — great background tune for her entry. Anyone know what it is?

She’s beginning to speak:

Thank you all. I am so honored to be here tonight. I’m here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat. As a proud Senator from New York. A proud American.

And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

My friends, it is time to take back the country we love. And whether you voted for me or you voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose.

We are on the same team. And none of us can afford tosit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future and it is a fight we must win together.

I haven’t spent the past thirty-five years in the trenches, advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care., helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women’s rights here at home and around the world to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise that fulfills the hope of the American people. And you haven’t suffered through the last eight years to have four more years of more failed leadership.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.

Tonight, I ask you to remember what a presidential election really is all about. When the polls are closed, and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you, you children and your future.

Every day America’s greatnessis bound up in the lives of the American people. Your determination to keep going, often int he face of enormous obstacles. You taught me so much. You made me laugh and, yes, you even made me cry.

…

I will always remember the single mom who adopted two kids with autism. She didn’t have any health insurance, and she discovered that she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head with my name on it, and she asked me to fight for health care for her and her children.

I remember a man in a Corps t-shirt, and he said "Please take care of my buddies and, then, please take care of me."

…

I will always be grateful to everyone from all fifty states, Puerto Rico and all the territories who joined the campaign to stand up to the Bush Administration.

…To my sisterhood of the travelling panstsuits. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Because you never gave in and we never gave up. Because, along the way, we lost two Democratic champions…tribute to Bill Blotney and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones…

After 4 years of Bush, the Supreme COurt in a right=-wing head lock, money borrowed fromt he Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis…

(She’s speaking really quickly here — sorry am missing things.)

To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs. To p[romote a health care system so that parents know that their children will be taken care of. We want to create a world class educatiuon system to make college affordable again.

Talking about civil rights, women’s rights, labor rights, gay rights…

To help every child live up to his or her god given potential. To make America once again a nation of immigrants and of the rule of law….end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home with honor, and give our veterans the care they deserve.

Confront our shared challenges from terrorism to global warming….

Those are the reasons I ran for President. And those are the reasons I support Barack Obama for President.

I want you to ask yourselves, "Were you in this campaign just for me?" Or were you in this campaign for that mom with cancer? That mom surviving on minumum wage? That young soldier?

We need leaders who can help us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, there are no limits to what is possible in America.

Now, this will not be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don’t fight to put a Democrat back int he WH. We need to elect Barack Obama, because we need a president who understand that we can’t pad the pockets of energy speculators while ignoring the problems of those whose jobs hae been shipped overseas…

We need a president who understands that the genius of America has always depended on the strength of the middle class.

Obama built his campaign on the belief that change in this country must start from the ground up not the top down….When Obama is in the WH, he’ll…meet the global challenges of our time. As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats. And if we do our part, we’ll do it again with President Obama and the Democrats.

Just think of what America will be as we transform our economy, build our base for middle class jobs.

Obama built his campaign on the belief that change in this country must start from the ground up not the top down….When Obama is in the WH, he’ll…meet the global challenges of our time. As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats. And if we do our part, we’ll do it again with President Obama and the Democrats.

Just think of what America will be as we transform our economy, build our base for middle class jobs.

And I can’t wait to watch Barack Obama sign into law a health care plan that covers every single American.

And we know that President Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly, bring our troops home and begin to repair our alliance around the world.

Barack will have a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone who saw her speech last night knows that she will be a terrific first lady.

Compliment to Joe Biden — he’s pragmatic, he’s tough, and he’s wise. They will be a great team for our country.

Now, John McCainis my colleague and my friend. But we don’t need four more years of the last eight years. More economic stagnation and less More high gas prices and less energy work. More foreclosures and higher prices and less help for the middle class. More wars and less diplomacy.

John McCain wants to privatize social security. And in 2008, he still thinks its okay that women don’t earn equal pay for equal work. With an agenda like that, it makes sense that John McCain and George Bush will appear together in the Twin Cities — because these days they are awfully hard to tell apart.

Equal opportunity for all and the common good. I’m a US Senator because in 1848 some brave women and a few brave men travelled to NY for the first convention to work for women’s sufferage. These women and men looked into their daughters’ eyes and saw the need for a better future, and risked ridicule and so many other things to give women the vote.

My daughter was born before women had the right to vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for President.

…Follow the example of a brave New Yorker, Harriet Tubman said "If they have torches inthe woods, keep going….If you want a taste of freedom, keep going." We have found the faith to keep going. I have seen it in the facesof our firefighters, our police officers, our teachers, our workers, our military…

Before we can get going, we have to elect Barack Obama the next president of the US. We don’t have a moment to lose or a vote to spare. Nothingless than the fate of our nation and our children’s future hangs int he balance. Think about the choices that your parents and grandparents made — we have to ensure that teh choice we make in this election honors the sacrifices made in generations before us. That gives us hope for a better future.

There is no chasm too great, no ceiling too high. That is our mission Democrats. Let’s elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden!

Christy Hardin Smith

Christy is a "recovering" attorney, who earned her undergraduate degree at Smith College, in American Studies and Government, concentrating in American Foreign Policy. She then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of political science and international relations/security studies, before attending law school at the College of Law at West Virginia University, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review. Christy was a partner in her own firm for several years, where she practiced in a number of areas including criminal defense, child abuse and neglect representation, domestic law, civil litigation, and she was an attorney for a small municipality, before switching hats to become a state prosecutor. Christy has extensive trial experience, and has worked for years both in and out of the court system to improve the lives of at risk children.